Sweet Potato Pie

Friendsgiving recipe roundup continues with this Sweet Potato pie. I hope you’re as pumped as I am.

This recipe was inspired by a recent trip I took a trip to Seattle where I had a pretty amazing slice of sweet potato pie with a praline topping. I knew immediately that I wanted to try to recreate it. Our Friendsgiving dinner seemed like the perfect place to test it out.

As mentioned in my last post, I wanted to put a healthier spin on my desserts, but didn’t want to compromise on flavor…Not to toot my own horn, but this pie delivers on all fronts.

Both the filling and candied pecans get their sweetness from maple syrup, not refined sugar, and the addition of coconut milk makes the filling oh so creamy. It has just the right amount of sweet for it to render as a dessert, but it’s not going to make you feel like you’ve just given yourself five cavities…looking at you pecan pie.

I hope you find a place for this pie on your Thanksgiving table this year!

I actually only used one crust for this recipe and kept the second pie crust-less for my Gluten Free guests and everyone loved it.

Pie Filling:

3 lbs baked sweet potatoes

1/4 cupreal maple syrup

2 large eggs

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 tablespoonvanilla extract

1 Teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/8 Teaspooncinnamon

1/4teaspoonsalt

Candied Pecans:

20 oz of halved pecans (I used two 10 oz bags)

Maple syrup (confession: I didn’t measure this, just made sure the pecans were completely coated)

2 Teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of sea salt

Egg Wash:

1 Egg

1 Tablespoon water

DIRECTIONS

Bake the sweet potatoes at 425ºF for 45 minutes or until soft. Once cool to touch, remove the skins and place potatoes in a large bowl and add all other ingredients. Mix until smooth using a hand or stand mixer, then place mixture in the refrigerator

Make pie crust(s) according to direction. Once fully chilled, rolled out, and place in a pie dish, score (aka poke) the dough all over using a fork and blind bake for 15-20 minutes or until the dough is very lightly golden brown.

Scoring = A way of allowing steam to escape during baking

As your pie crust(s) is blind baking, add halved pecans to a saucepan and toast lightly over low heat for 1-2 minutes. Then add enough maple syrup to coat all pecans – as previously mentioned, I eyeballed this. Stir for an additional 3-4 minutes, then add vanilla and salt. Give it one last stir and turn off the heat.

We’re now ready to fully assemble our pies!

Pull your pie filling out of the fridge and evenly divide mixture between your two pie dishes. Spoon your candied pecans over the pie filling until both pies are fully covered

Before baking, make your egg wash by whisking together your egg and water and brush the edges of your pie crust with the mixture

This adds a nice shine to the pie crust

Bake for 20 minutes or until the edges of the pie crust are golden brown